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WASHINGTON—The former director of the FBI says Donald Trump is a liar who improperly tried to shut down a criminal investigation into a key ally and then fired him to attempt to influence the broader investigation into dealings between Russia and the president’s campaign.

In congressional testimony so hotly anticipated in the U.S. capital that bars opened in the morning to televise it, James Comey built an extraordinary case that Trump’s words and acts were inappropriate at best and may have constituted obstruction of justice.

Comey, a former prosecutor, refused to say whether he thought Trump did commit obstruction. But he offered repeated hints that he thinks the president at least came close to the line, and his two-and-a-half hours under oath before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday made clear that Trump himself, not just his associates, faces significant legal and political peril.

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Comey also handed Trump some ammunition, questioning the behaviour of Barack Obama’s attorney general and declaring a New York Times article about the Russia probe inaccurate. On the whole, though, his testimony amounted to a searing indictment of the president’s conduct and character.

By the time he was done, a Trump spokesperson, Sarah Sanders, felt the need to issue the kind of denial political messengers usually try to avoid: “I can definitively say the president is not a liar.”

Senators asked Comey a broad array of questions related to Trump and Russia. The sharpest dispute between Republicans and Democrats was over a single sentence that may shape Trump’s fate: his declaration to Comey, in a one-on-one Oval Office conversation on Feb. 14, that “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

Even Trump’s attack dog for the day, son Donald Trump Jr., did not deny that Trump said this. But he described “hope” as a benign expression of support for a friend, not an attempt to shut down the probe.

“The president never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone,” said Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz.

Comey disagreed. He said he took Trump’s request as a “direction” from the president, tantamount to an order. He said the request was so out of bounds it left him “stunned” and became “of investigative interest” to the FBI.

And he said Trump’s insistence that the attorney general and others leave the Oval Office before he made this request was, “to me as an investigator,” a “very significant fact.”

“Why did he kick everybody out of the Oval Office?” he said.

Comey said he believes Trump fired him in May to influence the FBI probe into possible collusion by his campaign with the Russians who interfered in the 2016 election — noting that Trump himself said on television that he was thinking of the Russia inquiry when he made the decision.

“It’s a fair judgment, it’s my judgment, that I was fired because of the Russia investigation. I was fired in some way to change — the endeavour was to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal, and not just because it involves me,” he said.

Comey suggested that special counsel Robert Mueller is now probing the question of obstruction.

Rep. Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said “it is difficult to overstate the significance of this testimony.”

“In my view, this testimony constitutes evidence of an intention to interfere or potentially obstruct at least a portion of the Russia investigation, if not more,” he said.

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Comey never deviated from his trademark expression of sober serenity. But in his opening statement, he claimed Trump uttered defamatory “lies” when he claimed he dismissed Comey because rank-and-file FBI employees had lost confidence in him.

And Comey said he had so little faith in Trump’s truthfulness that he felt compelled to document all of their conversations in writing, something he never did with Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said of their first exchange, a January briefing about Russia.

As usual with things Trump, reaction to the testimony was split along partisan lines. Some Republicans said they heard vindication.

Comey said Trump had not personally been under investigation, never asked him to halt the larger Russia probe, and never mentioned Flynn again. Comey also said he had been uncomfortable with a request from Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, about how to publicly describe the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Comey acknowledged that he gave a memo on Trump’s Oval Office request about Flynn to a friend, a university professor, to pass along to news reporters — hoping that the disclosure would lead to the appointment of the special counsel.

Conservative media seized on this “leak,” and Kasowitz accused Comey, with no evidence, of leaking information that was “classified” and “privileged” to try to harm the administration.

Trump managed to keep himself from responding to Comey on Twitter. As the hearing approached its conclusion, the president gave a speech to a gathering of Christian conservatives, telling them, without mentioning Comey, that the Bible says “the truth will prevail.”

Senators challenged Comey over his own conduct during his talks with Trump. If he knew Trump was wrong to have made the Flynn request, they asked, why had he not spoken up at the time?

“I was a bit stunned, I didn’t have the presence of mind,” Comey said at one point. At another, he said, “Maybe if I were stronger I would have.”

Trump has threatened Comey with the prospect of releasing “tapes” of their exchanges — though the White House again refused to say on Thursday whether such tapes exist.

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